[MAGAZINE] Bi Shounen (Nasu Yuto) - SODA (May 2022) solo interview

[dreamweavernyx]

The last of the solo columns I was planning to translate from SODA's May issue; here's Nasu's column! He's always been fairly serious despite his lively demeanour and this interview was no exception; he talks seriously about juggling school with Johnnys' work, how Bi Shounen deepened their bonds through their dramas, and their motivation for moving ahead.

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Nasu Yuto: The world reflected in his straightforward eyes

Nasu Yuto, who always seems to be lively and cheerful even as he leads a busy life as a member of Bi Shounen, and as a current university student. We ask him for his thoughts about juggling schooling with his entertainment activities, and about Bi Shounen.

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For him, recently his activities with Bi Shounen, such as serving as the lead actors for the Johnnys’ Densetsu shows “Shounentachi Kimi ni Kono Uta wo” and “JOHNNYS’ Island THE NEW WORLD”, have been particularly remarkable; and at the same time, he has been increasingly having solo appearances on quiz programmes and the like. What’s more, he is presently a university student majoring in economics, and is presently juggling both his studies and his entertainment activities.

“I joined Johnnys’ in my third year of middle school. When I entered high school in my second year as a Jr., we started to have studies in more specialised areas, and I couldn’t study the way I’d always been studying before; that was the first time I thought that juggling both studies and entertainment activities was rough. That’s why, as I was thinking of how to study within the limited time I had, I started using the little pockets of time where I had nothing else to do, such as when I’m on the train or during breaks in rehearsals. By using those pockets of time to study, I think I’ve become pretty capable of juggling both (studies and entertainment activities). That being said, I wasn’t used to it at first, because I was still in the process of trial-and-error, and I really only hit my stride somewhere around the second year of high school.”

Even though he felt that juggling both studies and entertainment activities was rough, he still progressed on to university, and did not give up on either.

“Johnnys’ is also really important, but ever since the time I sat for my middle school entrance exams I’ve always been set on going to university, and my parents let me continue my activities because I promised them I’d go to university, so I never really considered the option of giving up on either of them. I think the presence of the friends around me also really helped. When I’m in Johnnys’ I would concentrate on Johnnys’ (matters), and when I’m just being a regular student I’ll enjoy being a student. Among my friends, there are incredible people such as someone who became an officially-certified accountant while still in school, and someone who’ll definitely start up their own business within the next 5, 10 years; I’m always being spurred on by them. I’m in the economics department, and when I was initially deciding on what to major in, I asked for advice from a lot of people such as Sakurai (Sho)-kun and my seniors in the baseball club. Of course, I did casually discuss with Ukisho about “what are you going to major in?”, but it does differ from university to university. I chose the economics department because I thought that there’d be many things that could also be useful in my work as a Johnnys’, and also I thought it would be nice to be with my friends, so as a result of getting wrapped up in that (laughs), all of the dudes I’m close to ended up in the same department. I think that added a layer of security to my life as a university student.”

Whether he’s with Bi Shounen, or with his friends as a university student, he is always in his natural state.

“When I’m with my friends, I’m at the same energy level as I would be around Bi Shounen. Usually, I’m pretty lively and always talking, and my friends often tell me I’m noisy (laughs). When I’m with my friends I’m really just a regular university student, no different from anyone else. When my friends come to watch my stage productions or concerts, they often tell me “you were a different person (up there)”, and immediately after they tend to keep a bit of distance from me. It’s pretty normal for them to realise, “ah, this guy’s an entertainer, after all”, and then forget about it after (laughs). In the past, I’d kept school and entertainment activities as two separate things in my head, but recently I do get asked about the things I’ve studied recently in school when on TV, so I’ve come to realise that there are parts where they overlap, too.”

When we ask him about Snow Man’s Abe Ryohei, who is his senior in the “intelligent idol” category and the centre of the Johnnys’ Quiz Club, he happily broke out into a wide smile.

“He’s a really kind senior. He’s kind when we’re doing the Quiz Club together, but even in our private lives, recently on my birthday he sent me well-wishes at midnight on the dot, you know. I was happy that he remembered my birthday, and it’s really kind of him to take the trouble to contact a junior on their birthday. We have many chances to appear on quiz programmes together, so I think we’re pretty close. When I appear on a programme by myself I’ll ask him for advice, like if I’m going to appear on a quiz programme tomorrow then I’ll ask him stuff like what kind of questions have been coming out recently.”

Now, his image as one of the intelligent idols in Johnnys’ is pretty strong, but actually as a child he was not great with studies.

“When I first started elementary school I didn’t like studying and my grades weren’t good, so I often didn’t feel like studying, and got scolded pretty often for that. But then my mom suggested I try going to a cram school. When I started going to one, I discovered that occasionally getting things right in mathematics, which I’d never been good with, was pretty fun, and so studying started becoming more and more fun to me. Because that was what caused me (to love studying), I’m thankful that I was made to go to cram school.”

From our childish chatter, everyone has matured

Well, on to Bi Shounen, which Nasu Yuto treasures above all. It has been 5 years since their formation, but it seems that their sense of unity has really strengthened in the past 1-2 years.

“For us, I think what played a big part was the fact that we got to appear in dramas as a group, such as “Manatsu no Shounen ~19452020” and “The Highschool Heroes”. We were together from early in the morning until late at night, desperately memorising our lines and acting out our roles. The 6 of us were giving it our all to work towards the same direction. For “HighHero”, it even became a hot topic among tokusatsu* fans, which I’m grateful for, and I was happy for that recognition that came from a wholly different circle. During “Manatsu no Shounen”, all of us didn’t really have much experience with dramas, so we particularly received much support from the staff. We put our experience from “Manatsu no Shounen” to use in “HighHero”, and that raised our own morale, and we were able to put out our own opinions while actively speaking with the staff team. The 6 of us had decided to broaden our horizons when we arrived at the set, so I think we were positively influenced, not just in the realm of acting skills, but in various areas.”

[T/N: Tokusatsu refers to a genre of action dramas utilising video special effects. Examples of famous tokusatsu shows include Ultraman and Kamen Rider.]

It might be the same for any group, but for Bi Shounen, they were able to engage in lively conversation, just like they did on the drama set.

“We started out with the lively chatter of young kids, but bit by bit we grew more mature, and became able to have more serious conversations, so we’ll usually gather at someone’s house and talk among the 6 of us. (Iwasaki) Taisho is someone who provides pretty unique views. For example, if the other 5 are like, “how about this?”, he’ll say something like “there’s this other option that hasn’t been considered”, and gives comments that provide us with a fresh viewpoint. When we were deciding the setlist for last year’s “SamaSute” (Summer Station Live THE FUTURE), it was Taisho who suggested that we do Domoto Tsuyoshi-kun’s song “Sora”, which I was grateful for because it wasn’t a song the rest of us had been considering. I think surprising opinions like those are really important. Kanasashi (Issei) used to be pretty childish, and he’d be a little meek during our discussions, but now he properly voices his opinions, and in particular he’s recently begun having strongly-held views and hopes, which makes me happy. (Sato) Ryuga has also become more and more capable of voicing his opinions, but the good thing about Ryuga is that he doesn’t push them too forcefully. He doesn’t say things like “it absolutely must be this”, so it doesn’t turn into a fight. The one who makes the most suggestions, and says stuff like “let’s do this the next time”, is Ukisho. In contrast to that, Fujii (Naoki)-kun will voice his own opinions, but at the same time he’ll also point out more objective things like “the other groups have also done this, you know”. And as for me, because these are opinions voices by everyone, I don’t want to cancel them out. I try my best to see how we can take the best parts of everyone’s ideas and put them together. Further, last year we were talking about how dance would be really important, and while it’s good for us to individually take dance lessons, we should also take lessons as a group; so I made a request to the agency to put together a group dance class, and we would all gather in the mornings before work 3 times a week for it. In December, we had those lessons in parallel with our rehearsals for “JaniAi” (JOHNNYS’ Island). I could see a big difference after we started the dance lessons, you know. When I watch the videos that we took for recording purposes, at first our bodies were stiff and our movements were not precise, but in more recent videos we’ve become able to move properly, which makes me happy.”

Their new song “Sing It”, which they revealed at the recent “JOHNNYS’ Island”, was also decided through discussion among the 6 of them.

“Initially, before we’d listened to about 10 potential songs, we’d already had the view that we wanted to do this kind of song. Among those songs, “Sing It” had a Western music style, and had a strong rhythm, so all of us unanimously picked it, thinking that with this we’d be able to show off our dance. Right now, we’re discussing creating an introduction song for Bi Shounen in the future. Usually there are have introduction raps in concerts, but there are some of who think that we should try for something different, while there are others who think it might be good to rap, as well. Since Bi Shounen doesn’t rap often, that would be interesting too (laughs).”

Anyone who is a Jr. would of course have debut on their mind, but when we asked him about it, expecting that he’d find it hard to answer, he answered us with straightforward words and a straightforward gaze.

“Of course, from the time I entered Jrs. I’ve wanted to debut. I think because I was put into a group pretty early on, things were expected for me, and it’s due to that that I didn’t quit (the agency). But because I wasn’t the one who had sent in my application, at the start I’d thought that it’d be okay to quit. Of course, at the time the agency was pretty curious and interesting, but I thought it was really a pity that due to that I couldn’t go for baseball club, which I enjoyed. But then I started thinking that if I got put into a group I would be able to debut, so even when I wasn’t in a group yet I was able to stay on without quitting. And then, around the time I was starting to enjoy (Jr. work), I was put into a group. I was able to watch on from close by as my seniors got to debut, so I think for us we’d definitely like to continue on towards that. When all of us went to watch Naniwa Danshi’s concert before they debuted, those feelings strengthened even further. Because of that, I’ll do my best.”

Comments

[roo-kie.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for doing this.
I like Bishounen relationship, Nasu Yuto a bit like Sakurai-san it term to put them together. Reading his interview made me realize how he love his member and being serious about it and study.

Thank you so much for translating all Johnny's Quiz club member interview I really enjoying it.

[dreamweavernyx]

No worries, I enjoyed translating them! ^^ It was really nice to see Nasu talk about the relationships of all of Bi Shounen, and how he brings everyone together; I think he does a really good job of it!